Wisconsin' State Agricultural Society. 
396 
CHOICE OF BREEDS. 
As to the choice of breeds for dairies, men of good sense and much 
experience will differ. Lfany one would hear honest and hot dif¬ 
ferences of opinion, touching the respective merits of the several 
popular breeds of cattle, let him attend an exhibition of the Royal 
Agricultural Society, of Great Britain, where celebrated and success¬ 
ful breeders, of fine stock exhibit their trophies of breeding-skill. 
Daniel Webster preferred the “short-horns,” which he sand¬ 
wiched between compliments for Devons and Ayrshires. Lt.-Gov- 
ernor Hyde, of Connecticut, the champion breeder of Devons, is 
quite sure they are all that can be desired, and claims that few breed¬ 
ers of Devons were “ high-feeders,” while the owners of Ayrshires 
feed high; and that much of New England territory, is incapable 
of sustaining the short-horns. One of his Devons, Gem one hun¬ 
dred and fifty-four, made one hundred and thirty-six pounds of but¬ 
ter in sixty days—averaging over two and a quarter pounds of butter 
per day, during which time her feed was two quarts of corn-meal 
and the ordinary pasture. Another of his Devons, Beauty twenty- 
five, yielded milk in ninety-five days, that made one hundred and 
ninety-five pounds of butter—averaging over two pounds of butter 
per day. He knew one Devon breeder who could produce a pound 
of butter from five quarts of milk. 
Mr. Bloomfield, in England, has found no one to accept his chal¬ 
lenge to milk forty Devon cows against the same number of any 
other breed owned by one man. 
Hon. Harris Lewis, ot Frankfort, New York, president of the 
New York State Agricultural Society, puts the Jersey cows at the 
head of the list. (When breeders speak of Jerseys they include 
the AJderneys and Guernseys, as they form one family or breed of 
cattle on the three islands of those names on the east side of the 
British or English Channel, near the coast of France; and being 
isolated or cut off from communication, by land, with other breeds 
of cattle, have, by a long and close process of thorough-breeding, 
with special reference to production of milk for butter and cheese, 
which were the most exportable products of those islands, become 
small, and are almost cream-jugs, or jugs of cream.) President 
Lewis places the Devons next to the Jerseys for butter, and espec- 
